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China overtakes U.S. in greenhouse gas emissions

LONDON — China overtook the United States in 2006 as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed for the bulk of global warming, a policy group that advises the Dutch government said.

China produced 6,200 million tons of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and making cement last year, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said Tuesday on its Web site. That pushed it past the United States, which produced 5,800 million tons of the gas, the agency said.

The United Nations blames greenhouse gases for causing global warming, increasing the risk of rising sea levels, droughts and floods. At present, neither China nor the United States are subject to targets under the only international treaty requiring emissions cuts, the Kyoto Protocol, whose provisions expire in 2012. European leaders hope to jump-start negotiations for a successor agreement this year.

Rapid industrialization in China has long prompted predictions that it would overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter. Fatih Birol, the International Energy Agency's chief economist, said in April that China would become the biggest emitter this year or next, an advance on the IEA's previous forecast of 2009. Ma Kai, chairman of the top economic planning body in China, the National Development and Reform Commission, said this month that China would "definitely" overtake the United States, though he did not say when that might be.

The Dutch figures do not include emissions from flaring gas during oil and gas production, from underground coal fires, or from deforestation. The agency used fossil fuel consumption data from BP's "Review of Energy 2007" and cement production data from the U.S. Geological Survey to produce its emissions estimates.

Gao Guangsheng, director of the National and Development and Reform Commission's National Coordination Committee on Climate Change, was not available to respond to telephone queries.